A variety of medical devices for delivering a therapy and/or monitoring a physiological condition have been used clinically or proposed for clinical use in patients. Examples include medical devices that deliver therapy to and/or monitor conditions associated with the heart, muscle, nerve, brain, stomach or other organs or tissues. Some therapies include the delivery of electrical signals, e.g., stimulation, to such organs or tissues. Some medical devices may employ one or more elongated electrical leads carrying electrodes for the delivery of therapeutic electrical signals to such organs or tissues, electrodes for sensing intrinsic electrical signals within the patient, which may be generated by such organs or tissue, and/or other sensors for sensing physiological parameters of a patient. Other medical devices do not include leads, and instead include electrodes and/or sensors formed on or located within a housing of the device.
In systems that include medical leads, the leads may be configured to allow electrodes or other sensors to be positioned at desired locations for delivery of therapeutic electrical signals or sensing. For example, electrodes or sensors may be carried at a distal portion of a lead. A proximal portion of the lead may be coupled to a medical device housing, which may contain circuitry, such as signal generation and/or sensing circuitry. In some cases, the medical leads and the medical device housing are implantable within the patient. In systems that do not include medical leads, electrodes and/or sensors may be located within the medical device housing, which may be positioned at a location that allows delivery of therapeutic electrical signals or sensing of bioelectrical signals. Medical devices with a housing configured for implantation within the patient may be referred to as implantable medical devices.
Implantable cardiac pacemakers or cardioverter-defibrillators, for example, provide therapeutic electrical signals to the heart via electrodes carried by one or more implantable medical leads. The therapeutic electrical signals may include pulses or shocks for pacing, cardioversion, or defibrillation. In some cases, a medical device may sense intrinsic depolarizations of the heart, and control delivery of therapeutic signals to the heart based on the sensed depolarizations. Upon detection of an abnormal rhythm, such as bradycardia, tachycardia or fibrillation, an appropriate therapeutic electrical signal or signals may be delivered to restore or maintain a more normal rhythm. For example, in some cases, an implantable medical device may deliver pacing stimulation to the heart of the patient upon detecting bradycardia or tachycardia, and deliver cardioversion or defibrillation shocks to the heart upon detecting tachycardia or fibrillation.
Another example implantable medical device is an implantable or insertable cardiac monitor, which, in some examples, may not deliver therapy, and may not include leads. An implantable cardiac monitor may include electrodes formed on or integral with its housing for sensing cardiac electrical activity, e.g., intrinsic depolarizations of the heart. An implantable cardiac monitor may include other sensors, e.g., pressure, temperature, motion, or the like, formed on or located within its housing. An implantable cardiac monitor may analyze the cardiac electrical activity to identify cardiac arrhythmias, such as asystole, bradycardia, tachycardia, or fibrillation. An implantable cardiac monitor may store signals representing the cardiac electrical activity, e.g., cardiac electrograms, and any analysis of the signals, for later retrieval by a user.